in screaming color
by Lionus
Summary: This love left a permanent mark.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Fairy Tail or anything to do with the 1989 record (i.e., title and summary where lyrics used).

* * *

It's not like any of it was real, the clap board _clacked,_ and they were officially being paid _.  
_

Not that it mattered to her, dollar signs weren't what made her knees shake and it certainly wasn't the adrenaline rush of cashing a crisp check with her name scrawled across it zinging lightning through her veins.

No, it was _him_.

It was the damnable cameo for an action film she had gladly agreed to and it was him being dragged through the surprise of being bumped from nameless extra to minor, minor character that shared a moment with someone he cared about as the camera would pan over a battlefield in the wake of victory. Somehow, her name had come up and their height difference mentioned and every way they differed beyond that discussed and decided upon before she could even get out of the makeup chair.

They were smudged beyond recognition to appear as if they'd been through hell and back, for some cause or another, in the middle of rolling hills in a far, far away country she had only dreamed of visiting. She was overly excited the director and his crew had decided it would be a two or three day event to ensure they captured several takes and angles and ideas to ensure plenty of options were recorded for editing. It gave her time to enjoy the wide, blue sky and land so lush and _green_ it was dizzying. The price was almost worth it. The two day event had them repeating the action over and over again for full work days. Over and over again, but it never stopped catching her off guard or gluing her boots to the soil.

Over and over until she could almost _feel_ the dust settle in her lungs and a shout of victory and relief catch in her throat when his _hand_ caught in the fabric of her tunic to pull her close for the kiss each time. It was nothing short of unprofessional the way he seemed to steal the dust and victory and relief and her _heart_ without any effort at all.

Everything ached and little of it had to do with her stunt work and everything to do with a man she barely knew kissing her once and knocking the breath out of her while sweeping the floor out from under her for days on end. She tried, in vain, to talk to him more, to move past the initial acquaintance phase where he smiled and told her his name and the professional phase where he asked her what was okay to do and what wasn't - as their script direction gave them wiggle room as long as it was good. She wanted to tell him her favorite food and joke and what her middle name was and her favorite song and her top ten movies and hang on to his every word as she asked him the same questions.

Her words always stalled on her tongue, her mouth working to form words that were lost to her as soon as she figured out what she was going to say.

He was like catching smoke with bare hands, on set and next to her and holding her to him in a way that had never made her feel safer one moment and gone the next with the director's abrupt ' _CUT!'_

Quietly, and subtly, she tried to tell him - in what would be their last take where they were encouraged to throw caution to the wind and _overact f_ or one electric, genuine last try. This time she didn't overthink her options and, for the first time in her life, let her actions precede her words. Levy grabbed back as his hand found its way to the usual spot on her hip, wrapping her arm daringly around his neck to bring her feet off of the ground and tangling her fingers in the singed and torn fabric of his shirt. They were two in a field of two hundred and she _knew_ , knew that this was the sole time she would be brave enough to tell him.

She meant to leave an impression on him like he had given her, but it was only herself she made gasp.

He evaporated like smoke all the same - leaving her head reeling every moment after - once the scene was ended and officially declared the final take.

* * *

Once the check finally arrived, it was little in the wake she felt when he wrapped his arm around her waist and the warmth of him palm seeped into her taught muscles. She pressed her fingers over her name and frowned, the slick, neat print didn't make her feel that everything she had done was real. When her fingers had brushed over the hairline at the back of his neck, it was definitive and so much more grounding than a sum in her bank account. Money would come and go with time and she would eventually forget every little thing she spent the paycheck on, but she knew in 20 years or more she would be able to recount, with accuracy, the thickness of his hair sliding through her fingers and the gentleness of his calloused hands.

She had almost reserved herself to living among the ghost of things she almost had or could have had if their love had broken past film and scripts and characters they played to become a bond between the real them.

 _Almost._

* * *

Her phone rang with an unknown number and his voice was there again, hushed in her ear and just as gravelly as she remembered it. In a rush of lightning zinging through her veins, she said of course she would be his plus one for the premiere. Everything she had felt and pushed away for the sake of continuing to live in the real world, slowly crept its way back to the forefront. She found herself smiling with hope. After several months and back into another makeup chair, he stood there at her door in black tie with the possibility of having all of her questions answered tucked neatly inside the breast pocket of his jacket. He watched her with curiosity and something else that had her cheeks pinking as she spent her own time taking him in.

She saw the possibility that maybe she really had made him feel as equally lost and elated.

The way he helped her to the car and out of it as lights and a long strip of red blurred her vision, she checked one question off of her list when he chuckled at a joke he made to her. His breath ghosting over the baby hairs near her ear had her laughing with nerves - and humor at such a person who seemed so serious all of the time making such a corny quip.

The rest of her questions fell away as unimportant details as he helped her hold the length of her dress up as she ascended the stairs, his wide palm gently pressed to her back where her dress dipped low. Before they followed their A-list co-stars before the flash of cameras and sling of questions from smiling reporters, he offered his arm to her and made another joke - this one sarcastic in a way that had her bumping his shoulder with her own and laughing loudly.

If this would be the last night they had, she would be grateful, but as she caught his eye as her laughter subsided and, once again, had everything in her slinging toward the moon and stars as his gaze dropped from her eyes to the end of her nose to her mouth and along her jaw, she had an inkling that it wouldn't be just one more night.

Whatever questions she had deemed unimportant to bother with, resurfaced. Levy grinned as she squeezed his hand and nodded, stepping with him into the world where the bright carpet and light flashes blurred together and they broke past film.

* * *

 **A/N:** This will be the start of an unrelated series of oneshots inspired by tracks on 1989. The stories will range from canon to AU and won't fall in any particular order unless otherwise stated.


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Fairy Tail or anything regarding the 1989 record.

 **A/N:** This story will weave between the present moment of the story and one past, the past - or memory - will be in italics.

* * *

 _are we in the clear yet? good._

* * *

Its roar shook the island and pierced her heart as she desperately gripped the cliff side. Her fingers slipped and a rock bit into her palm and a sob caught in her throat as she worked to regain her grip, but she couldn't bite her tongue soon enough to hide the moment of weakness from him. He glowered at her from the corner of his eye and grunted as he scaled farther up the mountain.

Gajeel winced when the doscadon opened it's jaws once more and he growled low in his throat before shouting down to her. "Get a move on or we're gonna be bunkin' with Mavis."

"Gajeel, that's not funny!" Her joints ached, causing her angry hiss to break with another squeak of pain and _fear_.

"I ain't tryin' to be _funny_."

She bit the inside of her cheek, but there was no way he couldn't hear the last strings of her strength _snap_ and curl with each ferocious howl of the doscadon. She should have never agreed to this - to _any_ of it - and definitely not _him_.

* * *

 _He had the decency to ask her to empty her personals and place her bathing suit and extra clothes to the side before he went about tearing through her supplies bag and scoffing at several of the items before tossing them over his shoulder into a waste bin. "None of this is gonna help you, it's just gonna weigh ya down."_

 _The entire situation was more him doing as he pleased and making her feel as if **she** was the one privileged enough to be **his** partner and less giving her the encouragement and - when asked - direction she needed._

" _Hey!" Her shoulders went ridged and her foot stamped against his hardwood floors, the striking and demanding slap of her sandal giving her a little more courage when she noticed he flinched. His own shoulders straightened as he slowly turned toward her, looking her directly in the face for the first time since she entered his place. The dragon slayer moved from the bedside to her and she scoffed at the attempt to intimidate her._

" _I'm fixing to barrel into a mission that could kill me, Gajeel. Your six something mountain of bad vibes isn't going to cut it today." He narrowed his eyes, but she didn't give him time to reply. "You need a serious attitude adjustment. I was honored just to be nominated."_

" _Ever wonder if that's maybe why you're not S-Class yet?"_

 _She felt her lip curl, she couldn't remember the last time she had been this tangibly furious at one of her guild mates. "I **know** why I'm not S-Class yet and if I'm going to have any chance at it, you need to pull your head out of your ass and start acting like my partner. _

_The piercings over his brow ticked up as she folded her arms across her chest._ " _Or did you forget that part? I was nominated, you were not. And if that's the only reason you-"_

" _I ain't jealous of nobody."_

" _You realize I could **literally** slap you in the face with proper grammar, right?" She bit her tongue and looked away. _

_She had told Jet and Droy that she could handle this. That she could handle **him** ; him calling dibs on being her partner would be the last call he'd make and she'd take no prisoners if his attitude continued. She felt exhausted already. At the rate they were going, they wouldn't even make it to the boat without wanting to throttle each other, and the Master wouldn't allow them to board unless he was sure they were an actual team and that she was okay with all of it. _

_Levy groaned and scrubbed her hands through her hair. "You're so damn infuriating!"_

 _He crossed his arms and glared at a spot over her shoulder. "Well, at least we agree on somethin'."_

 _Her eyes flashed open to pin him with her best glare. "You need to take this seriously, Gajeel. Tenrou and the Trials aren't something to be trifled with. I don't know what you did to gain S-Class status in Pha-"_

" _ **Don't**."_

* * *

"You're the one that griped about me goin' first since you figured wearin' a _dress_ without leggings was smart!" He reached, piercing a nail into the cliff as a hand hold and hauling himself up closer to the ledge. "I can't exactly help ya when I'm ahead of ya."

He was almost there, they could make it if he just kept her anger fueled enough to finish the last stretch of cliff before them. He'd deal with the repercussions of vexing her - despite their truce - later.

"I'd like to see you sprint through forests in a damp bathing suit. It's just as much my prerogative to wear what I want than it is for you to wear that _ridiculous_ feathered cloak in this sweltering heat." She hissed when her palm slipped again, this time managing to nick her skin against the jagged rock. A clean cut ran the length of her palm and she was relieved it wasn't something that would hold her up even more than she already was.

Well, as relieved as anyone could be hanging for dear life on the face of a cliff while they were being hunted by a prehistoric carnivore that should have been a fossil several millennia ago.

Gajeel glanced down, pretending to glare at her, he watched her brows furrows at a spot on her hand before she swiped it across the skirt of her dress. Whatever it had been wasn't serious, she looked no more panicked than she had been as she reached up for a new hand hold.. The cliff was near impossible even for _him_ and even if she did weigh next to nothing, it wasn't safe or possible to pack her the rest of the way up.

* * *

 _A shadow passed over his eyes and she gulped. Her eyes ticked down to see his fists shake at his sides and for the first time in **ages** , she had the gripping instinct to step back from him._

" _Don't." His voice cracked, barely loud enough for her to hear it. His words were strained strained. Her eyes flicked from his his hands back up to his face and the directness of his gaze made her anger falter._

 _Whatever curtain that skillfully shadowed his eyes, and kept her from being able to read his expressions on any given day of the week, was gone. The unobstructed view Levy had left her frozen. Somehow, she managed a quiet, "Okay." Levy nodded and sighed, rubbing her hands over her face once more. They were both quiet for a moment and she became acutely aware of the exhaustion that rolled off of him too. Levy swallowed, and pressed on._

 _"If you're only in this for the chance to challenge Natsu in some weird, dragon slayer alpha thing or to go toe-to-toe with Erza, I don't want you to be my partner. You don't even need to set foot **near** Tenrou if that's your only objective." She stepped forward, into his space and wrenched her hand into his shirt. "You're not doing anyone any favors. Especially not me and certainly not **yourself**." Levy tugged and he grimaced, trying to keep space between them where she was adamant to erase it. _

_"You want to prove to Makarov you're walking a different path? O-Or to Natsu? Or to Jet and Droy? If you want to prove to **me** that I'm safe and that I can trust you, Gajeel Redfox, you have to show it._

" _I've dragged your ass through a cathedral and out of it as we went back and forth having each other's back. I've gone weak in the knees and lost every breath in my lungs at the **sight** of you. I took the best Phantom Lord had to offer and **lived** and that's why I was nominated as S-Class. You know cheap, dirty tricks, I know strong, honest tactics. You learn a few things from me and maybe you'll get your chance at S-Class in Fairy Tail one day."_

 _Gajeel looked like he was one halfhearted push from being taken down to the floor._ _ _Her breath shook as she breathed deep, vaguely, she registered feeling victorious that she'd managed to still him and make his eyes widen so easily._ "If I'm going to accept you as my partner, you have to show me I'm not making a mistake."_

* * *

The doscadon's steps shook the land again, making tiny pieces of rubble hit her cheeks and fall into her hair as he came closer. Her sandal slipped, she couldn't stop the fearful cry breaking out of her.

Gajeel grunted, bracing himself as smaller rocks of the cliff fell towards him. "Don't give me that shit. Yer almost there."

Levy looked back over her shoulder and almost sobbed. _It_ was there. She would be in perfect plucking distance if it heard or smelled them. Her knees knocked together as the treeline blurred when tears swam in her eyes. "G-Gajeel, I _can't_."

" _Yes_." She jumped when his calloused fingers suddenly wrap around her wrist. She looked up and felt a smile tug at her lips as he held his other hand out for her to take where he was perched over the side of the cliff on his belly. "You can."

She reached, putting all of her trust in him as her other foot slipped from its hold. She scraped her knees as he brought her over, but she couldn't bring herself to care as the heavy footfalls faded into the distance. Levy laughed, wrapping her arm around Gajeel's neck as he brought her a safe distance away from the cliff. She twisted her wrist out of his grip and snatched part of his damnable cloak.

" _You_."

It was all she could manage as she wheezed in an effort to catch her breath. She hoped it was enough to convey the rest of her meaning as the words were caught in her throat. He moved to pull away, gently starting to pry her arm off his neck, but she pulled him back in and held on tighter.

"Give me a minute, please." She felt more than saw his nod as his hand fell to his lap, not touching her. His timing and manner left much to be desired, but with everything else, she could see hope and promise in him.

She could do this.

 _They_ could do this.

* * *

 **A/N:** Levy's feisty, so I feel a little bit cheated that she seemed to just accept his declaration and only started to put him in his place _after_ they arrived on Tenrou.

Direct inspiration for these segments come from the live performances at The Grammy Museum, you can listen to them on YouTube. Only Wildest Dreams, Out of The Woods, and Blank Space have been uploaded so far, but following how the rest of them go up _might_ give you a clue as to which track will be next. The chapters you see here are an edited, (sometimes) fuller version of the prompts I write on tumblr (link in the bio).

Also, there's the sense of one big Jurassic Park/World reference being made, which is something else I do not own.


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Fairy Tail or any ideas, lyrics, etc. of 1989.

* * *

 _don't say I didn't warn ya_

* * *

"Try not to fall for me." He straightened his tie and smirked, he even had the audacity to wink at her.

Her annoyance flared only at herself for making the mistake of taking the bait by glancing up to him. Gajeel Redfox was her antithesis and that alone made everything in her boil with reckless spite.

She held up her gun, locking the safety before sliding it carefully into the holster at her leg. Levy strapped her foot into a heel and rolled her eyes at the glimmering nail job on her toes as she heard him move back around the room. " _That_ won't be hard."

Point for her - she could feel his infamous focus zeroed in on her leg as the long skirt of her dress fell back over her knee.

Levy glided past him, taking further satisfaction in the way her hair curled down her back and swished out with a flick toward the bane of her mission assignment. The woman stopped before the hotel room's vanity and faked careful consideration over each deadly accessory Lucy had created and stocked herself. "Which do you think would really make a strong statement piece - the bracelet with a short knife in it or the ring with the neurotoxin?"

A scoff met her as the tall shadow of her partner fell over the vanity and his reflection filled the mirror. "Dunno, I'm shit with that stuff." He frowned at her back, reaching forward without hesitation to curl his fingers around the material of her dress.

She jumped, her knee knocking harshly into the drawer. "What do you think you're _doing_?!"

"Yer not zipped all of the way." He gruffly yanked her closer to him, pulling the limited excess of the fabric back to easily finish the job. All of the self-control he had learned and earned from the job was put to the test when his hand brushed over her skin and he had to adamantly convince himself it was static electricity biting at the rough pads of his fingers.

The stark feeling of cool air hitting the place between her shoulder blades where he had fought the clasp of her dress shook Levy back to reality when his hands fell away. She figured she would have been set free from his gross breech of her personal space now that he had righted her dress, but before she could accidentally nip the toe of his expensive dress shoe with her glittering, pointed heel, Gajeel caught her wrist.

He lifted her hand between them to drop a pair of cuff links into her palm. "An eye for an eye, right?"

Levy narrowed her eyes at him and harshly wrenched his arm toward her in retaliation, making quick work of his 'request'. She refused to meet his eye - taking the coward's way out in hopes he hadn't felt the gooseflesh that rose over her back when he brushed her skin or saw the impressive streak of red that now colored her cheeks. "Your asking technique leaves much to be desired, Redfox."

He smirked, angling his head in a way that brought him closer to her and she was almost impressed he had the nerve to curl his fingers toward her hands with the array of weapons spread out behind her.

 _Almost._

"Thought you said I was a scum-sucking cockroach that wouldn't know a decent pair of manners if it bit me in the ass?" He could have bet a decent amount of money that she was debating whether the tongue lashing from their boss would be worth it if she stabbed him with one of the cuff links. Gajeel _did_ know that whatever points he won that might have drug him up from his current rank in the negatives were quickly lost with her when her eyes narrowed on him.

"Well, you are out to make yourself the new poster child for changes and turning over a new leaf. Manners ought not to be nearly as hard as fooling the agency's council." The second she finished, she coldly dropped his hand and stepped out of the space between him and the vanity, busying herself around the hotel room. Levy neatly started to tuck clothes into an open suitcase on the bed.

Gajeel gave in, swiping his coat from the bed, and growled, "My personal opinion on Heartfilia's crafted accessories is that they kinda pale in comparison to the giant _'BUZZ OFF'_ you have tattooed across yer forehead, McGarden. If you're gonna go out of yer way to freeze me out, we're gonna risk the job, our lives, and the lives of every agent we have going with us after this check point."

" _You_ don't know our agents."

Part of her was a little proud of herself for getting the stony-faced, overconfident Gajeel Redfox's wall of unshakeable suave to crack. The other part of her was mortified that she allowed him to get under her skin and shake her professionalism - their commander often bragged on how affable she was and her uncanny ability to work like a true chameleon with any sort of partner thrown at her. She swallowed as an eery and calm anger settled over his broad shoulders, working up to marr his sharp features.

"You're right, I don't know your agents, but I'm definitely familiar with the drawbacks working unchecked and how it can take down even the strongest agents." His mouth twisted sourly around his next words. "You don't trust me."

She raised her head, biting her words out. "Trust is earned. Do you trust me?"

 _"No."_

Levy refused to let the coil of her frustration to spring and ruin the reputation she had tirelessly built in the agency. She schooled her features and shrugged her shoulder cooly. "Then we're even."

He stepped up to her, meeting her aloofness. "No, we're not. I don't trust you because all you see is my past - what you _want_ to see - and you walk around me like it's some great chore to even be in the same room with someone the likes of me. You see everything as black and white, cut and dry and it's going to cause a lot of shit. If we're gonna survive, then, yeah, I _have_ to trust you."

" _Gee_ , don't put yourself through the trouble."

" _We_ ," Gajeel stiffly motioned between them, "…have to trust each other."

She was only a little disappointed that Gajeel hadn't stepped close enough fro her to swipe his legs out from under him, but didn't move closer or away from him. "My commander may be easily convinced with a good sob story, a handful of positive recommendations, and promises to do better, but I'm not. Leopards can't change their spots and I know the sole reason for why you're even here is to get out of a sentence that would sooner see you rot in the earth and turn to dust before it allowed you to see daylight."

"If you really believed that, you wouldn't be here."

"I'm here because it's my job - I was handed an order and I intend to follow it through."

"I think you're just prejudiced - I'd say about anyone like me from the wrong side of the tracks if I hadn't heard how ready you were to take Juvia in and coddle her. So I get the feelin' it's just me you have a particular bone to pick with."

"You say I'm prejudiced, but I can guarantee it's not without good reason and if we're going to go dragging all of this out in the open - let's talk about your pride. Y'know that thing that got you and her caught? It was your pride that blinded you and got your partner _shot_. Do you even know what Jose did to our team? And if that doesn't have your toes curling, perhaps you should request the reports for your stunt with Ivan."

Something passed over his face - something she couldn't name - and it caused a chill to race down her spine. "You've got me down to a 'T', don't you, McGarden?" Gajeel didn't wait for her answer as he turned away for the door. He sneered once more over his shoulder. "Well, lucky for you, I'll be out of your hair the second we've got the intel yer people need."

Levy stood still as the door closed behind him with a soft _click_.

* * *

She lifted the mascara wand to her eye, twirling the tip over her lashes. Even after all of her effort to shove him out of her head and blend her flushed anger away with foundation, a stubborn streak of red still lit Levy's cheeks and highlighted the band of freckles over her nose. She shook her head of the words they exchanged that still spun and echoed in her head. She tucked an errant lock of hair that fell over her eyes with the action - Levy couldn't find it in herself to be irritated that her hair had slipped over the wet coat of mascara.

She had half an hour before it was time for her to lavishly travel with her husband and friends to the fated business venture that would seal their case with the final nail of evidence. Hopefully with as few casualties as possible, but they were risking enough just walking in with their guns and the bullet proof vests just wouldn't cut it in the ridiculous evening gown of thin fabric and low back.

The lock on the hotel room's door clicked, successfully snapping her attention from her thoughts to the reflection of the figure that had just picked the lock to her room. In Levy's seasoned experience, a picked lock was just as earsplitting as gun fire and there was only one person brave enough to go around breaking into Levy's space. The thought had a smile tug at the corner of her mouth as a tall woman laid in green and long, thick locks spoke to her.

"Trouble in paradise?"

Levy spun around on her chair to properly look at one of her fellow operatives. "I wouldn't go so far as to label it paradise, but we're spies, trouble is our paradise."

Cana Alberona slinked rest of her way into the room with the lethal grace of a veteran and knowing of an older sister. "Are we not playing nice with others, Agent McGarden?"

She scoffed but didn't pause as she turned back around in her seat to finish swiping mascara onto her other eye. "I presume then Redfox came crawling with a bruised ego because he wasn't getting his way?"

"No, actually, but it's obvious something occurred, but least no one can say you two don't know how to commit to a portfolio."

"And what's _that_ supposed to mean?"

Cana lifted the wedding band and engagement ring set out on the vanity, holding them in front of Levy. "The fake marriage is just a pretense - but the ridiculous spats the two of you get into while somehow dripping every room you walk through with tension is very real."

"Hardly. He's conventionally attractive, though that's enough for me to want to share a bed with him." She rolled her eyes and took the rings to drop them carelessly into her clutch.

"You know as well as I do that not all tension is solely for the physical. There's something that's pulling you two together and we can only hope it's not just you two being the same kind of stubborn…but it would solidify you as an unmatched team for the agency….and after hours. You're both loyal to a fault, he could use a little more structure to keep him in check, and you could stand to loosen up a bit, if we're being honest. You would be immensely paramount to each other and I'm sure it'd be nice for you and Gajeel not to prepare for verbal warfare every time you occupy the same room."

Levy huffed, "I hope that's not a censored speech, I'd hate to know what you'd really say if you weren't just being nice."

"I'm doing you both a favor by attempting to straighten this out before we're locked up in a private jet, 10,000 feet up with whatever baggage you're holding against each other. If it grows enough to change the cabin pressure, Laxus and I have both agreed to send you home if it's not patched up before we board or send you on the next flight home if you two go at each other's throats near landing time." Cana folded her arms and leaned her hip against the side of the vanity. "I haven't seen him that angry after a conversation with you before. What happened?"

"His pride is wounded because I called him out on his slimy connections with Jose and Ivan and whatever suck-up scheme he used to sweet talk Makarov into allowing him on this sting operation wasn't going to fool me. Even if he's batting for us, it didn't mean he was going to knock time off of his sentencing or sweep it under the rug altogether."

The older woman hissed a curse word and shook her head. "Did you even bother to look over his file like you were supposed to?"

"Don't tell me - there's a lengthy sob story that clears his choices and makes him some agency golden boy." She tossed her makeup supplies haphazardly back into their case to punctuate her anger. Cana Alberona was never one to go easy on people that jeopardized their people or a job and Levy doubted Gajeel Redfox would somehow make him the exception in her watchful eyes. "Besides, he didn't bother to read mine."

 _"Lev."_

She dropped her blush brush at the older woman's tone and nervously glanced up, Levy swallowed thickly at the serious expression marring Cana's usually carefree features.

"Gajeel and Laxus are double agents with Ivan for _us_."


End file.
